A New Yorker magazine reporter on Monday quoted from a nonexistent political pledge to attack libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch and a group with which they are involved.
In a Monday piece blaming inaction on global warming legislation on the Koch brothers, New Yorker writer Jane Mayer said Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a group with which the Kochs are tangentially involved, had dissuaded legislators from acting by asking them to sign a pledge to vote against any revenue-raising climate proposal.
Mayer claimed the pledge forbade "legislation relating to climate change unless it is accompanied by an equivalent amount of tax cuts."
No AFP pledge contains that language. Mayer appears to have written the language herself and put quotation marks around it, making it appear as if it were directly drawn from the pledge itself.
AFP’s "No Climate Tax" pledge reads, "I, [legislator’s name], pledge to the taxpayers of [legislator’s state] and to the American people that I will oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue."
A correction notice attributes Mayer’s misquote to an "editing error."
"This article originally, and incorrectly, contained quotation marks around a paraphrased description of the pledge; the punctuation has since been corrected," the notice reads.
The New Yorker "originated the practice of fact checking and has for many years been famous for the reliability of its content," according to Slate’s Ben Yagoda.
Numerous news outlets and liberal political groups picked up the fake quote. Some, such as Salon and Politico’s Morning Energy, corrected their stories. Others, including the Huffington Post and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, have yet to do so.
Asked for comment on the misquote, Mayer attacked Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment and a former AFP vice president, who pointed out the error.
"In his press release pointing out that the New Yorker edited a punctuation error into my copy, Phil Kerpen misspelled my surname," Mayer told the Washington Free Beacon in an email. "We assume that like the New Yorker, Mr. Kerpen, too, will append a correction to his online copy."
"Why is it that advocates for bigger government, including their allies in the press, feel the need to skirt the issue?" asked James Valvo, AFP’s policy director, when contacted by the Free Beacon.
Valvo defended the group’s use of the pledge in an email Tuesday evening.
"The pledge is focusing on pinning down public officials on whether they want to use the global warming issue to grow government," Valvo said. "Almost every proposal that has been put forward in Congress on global warming would raise taxes by about $1 trillion. The American people fundamental reject this approach."
A recent Gallup poll showed that more Americans list "becoming a socialist country" than "Global warming/Environmental issues" as their top political concern.
Liberal political groups such as Organizing for Action, a dark money advocacy group that emerged from President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, have pushed hard for additional climate legislation despite a disinterested public.
Update, Thursday July 4 2:52 PM: The headline has been updated.